49
subdivision, and noticed the crews were way
down at the end of my new lead. Tey were
tensioning the cable on my frst project. I could
see the slack in between the poles, raising up
and becoming properly sagged, but I noticed a
distinct problem with my project.
One of the spans of cable in the pole lead
extended in a perfect "V" shape to the ground
and back up to the next pole. I thought, I'll just
go see what the problem is, help the crew with
this obvious operational problem and fx it
for them.
As I drove up to the area of concern, the
crews were continuing to take up the slack and
I noticed the cable was hooked under a large
frozen piece of dirt. Well, any engineer, especially
a young sharp one, could quickly fgure out that
all it would take to fx this problem, was to go
kick the dirt out of the way and it would release
the cable. So that is what I did!!!
I made sure to wear my hard hat as I got
out of my car, and being OSHA compliant,
I engaged my fashers as well. I wanted the
crews to see that I was very knowledgeable and
capable of assisting them with their work. As I
approached from the road side into the ditch, I
noticed the cable was
hooked on the feld side
underneath the clump
of dirt.
Not wanting to
step over this tensioned
cable, I extended my
foot over it and kicked
the clump of dirt with
enough force to release
the cable from its
imprisonment. As you
can imagine, that was
not the only thing that
was released.
As the energized
cable released, I was immediately propelled
about 8-12 (felt like 10-15) feet straight up into
the air. Do you know what outside plant and
poles look like from a higher point of view?
Have you ever seen a ballet dancer place her leg
straight up into the air over her head? Now try
doing that as a 26 year old, not-that-fexible 220
lb. linebacker.
As I was ascending, I immediately leaned
forward toward the 70 mph cable going vertical.
I extended my hands and arms out in front of
me until the cable fnally let go of my foot and
I dropped back to earth for a perfect two point
landing on my feet.
I never even lost my
hard hat. I looked around
and only one of the crew
members saw what had
happened. Te rest of the
crew had to pick him up
of the ground. I think he
even had to have help the
rest of the day but I'm sure
the story he had to tell was
well worth it.
I learned one very
valuable lesson. It probably
would not happen with
fber cable, though. Te
twisted copper stores a lot
of energy in tension, like
a spring. And so does its
Kevlar insulation.
Learn how Gordon
survived the dangers of
copper and clumsiness
to advocate for fber.
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